Take a moment to put yourself in a student's shoes. You are at a crossroads in life and desire something more. You know you'll have to work hard for your future and stretch yourself to accomplish your dreams and so you do what it takes. The economy and the pressures of your social image, family expectations and the promise of a career path point you to continuing education. The words from admissions departments, former graduates, publications, marketing, etc. all draw you to accept huge loans that you can't imagine ever paying off in your current life. But your current life is about to change, isn't it?

The third round of negotiated rulemaking didn’t go as well as we hoped. The new definition of gainful employment is basically making the government responsible for tuition costs. What is incredibly ridiculous is that not only does the Obama administration believe the government should be the ones creating jobs, but now they may shut down an important source of job training and preparation for careers that require more expensive training. Why create jobs for an untrained workforce? And what schools will be able to charge a tuition that maintains the 8% debt ratio being proposed? Hmmm ... maybe the community colleges? You know, those schools that fail to meet the standards career colleges are already held to!

When we allow (yes, it is up to those of us who elect these politicians) the government to run businesses, including schools, they seem to lack appropriate problem-solving capabilities.

What is blatantly apparent to me in reading this article is that while Career Colleges may also increase tuition, they continue to improve the quality of education and focus on programmatic offerings that are based on where the jobs are in our economy. Students of these traditional universities don't seem to feel that way about "their" education providers.

Individual Development Plans for career college faculty should include developmental goals and objectives, suggested professional affiliations and activities, recommended training, and classroom observation to evaluate transfer of training. An effective plan should encompass the instructor's own ideas for ongoing development of effective teaching, and be supported by the responsible manager/mentor through coaching, supplying the necessary resources, and mutual discussion of results.

By Kevin Kuzma, Editor, Career College Central

Here's a special thanks to whoever invented tabbed web browsing. The feature has become especially helpful in the last week for viewing all the allegations, hateful comments, and reports of investigation targeting career education. The sky above career colleges might appear as though it's falling, but at least I can see it crash in an orderly, tabbed format.